Berlusconi´s holding group deny Milan sale rumours

The holding group of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Fininvest, on Wednesday denied rumours they are planning to sell AC Milan football club.

Fininvest is made up of a group of companies, including the seven-time European champions, and is controlled by the Berlusconi family.

The company was recently hit with a 750 million euro fine for bribing a judge in the takeover of publishing house Mondadori.

Milan are known to be short of funds having sold star player Kaka in the summer for 67 million euros and spending only 20 million euros of that on new recruits.

But Fininvest insisted press rumours that the club is up for sale are wide of the mark.

“In reference to the repeated indiscretions of the press, Fininvest feels obliged once again to deny, in the most peremptory and absolute manner, that there is any such hypothesis relating to the sale, even partially, of AC Milan,” read a Fininvest statement.

The denial followed a claim by Albanian oil magnate Rezart Taci in the press that he was ready to buy the club.

It is not the first time Fininvest have had to deny sale rumours. In September La Repubblica newspaper claimed that Berlusconi tried to sound out potential buyers in Libya during a state visit in August.